Memo from NYC

Headline: "Trump: I miss New York."

Hey Donnie -- we don't miss you! 

Please don't come back! But, if you do, I hope your new home is:

Metropolitan Correction Center

150 Park Row, New York, NY 10007

Perhaps you'll share a cell with El Chapo. You can talk about broads and money laundering all day long!

Gotta Love New Yorkers

Grande Dames

New York City has never had a female mayor (hopefully it'll have one, a good one, in my lifetime) but, nevertheless, NYC women persist. They persist in racking up, along with their male counterparts, great accomplishments across the fields of finance, culture, politics, education, and so much more.

As a father of two daughters of NYC, I seek strong female role models for them to admire.

Case in point -- Tish James, the current NYC Public Advocate and New York State Attorney General-elect. Soon she'll be one of the most powerful women in this state and country -- a ground breaker in so many ways. 

Or Melissa Mark-Viverito, the former New York City Council Speaker who has recently declared that she will run for Public Advocate once Ms. James vacates the post.

Beyond politics, few women in NYC are as powerful as Anna Wintour -- an English immigrant and editor of Vogue magazine, she rules the fashion word in NYC and, in many respects, the world. Reports of her demise are constant -- and forever premature. Men in positions of power come and go but Ms. Wintour goes on.

But great NYC women are just powerful -- they're also funny. Sure, there's lots of women comedians in NYC but my favorite NYC funny lady is Roz Chast, the legendary New Yorker cartoonist. Now she's getting her own exhibit which runs in Chelsea until December 15th. In a city and industry where careers rise and fall quickly, she's endured -- persisted -- for more than 40 years.

In the movie Love, Actually, the lead character says "Love, actually, is all around us." 

In NYC, grande dames are everywhere, all around us, making our city and world a better place.
And let's appreciate them, not when they're gone, but now. 

Mr NYC in Bermuda

Yet another from the memory file!

I went to Bermuda with my parents for a week many years ago. While I can't say it was the most memorable trip of my life, I did enjoy my time on that tropical island in the Atlantic Ocean.

If you don't know much about Bermuda, here's a little background: it's small island with about 64 miles of coastline about an hour's flight from NYC with subtropical temperatures and is in the midst of the "hurricane belt" (the "Bermuda Triangle" etc.). It's also one of the last outposts of the British Empire, technically an "overseas territory" that rules itself but has no foreign policy or military (the UK takes care of that).

I don't remember much about resort we stayed at except that it was at one of the far ends of the island and had beautiful views of the ocean. There numerous resorts on the island you can stay at if you ever care of visit, ranging in price.

Small as it is, Bermuda has two towns: Hamilton, the capital, and St. George's. I remember Hamilton was quite grand and St. George's was small, funky, and had great streets with lots of local life. We also did a lot of walking trails and saw much of the lush, local scenery.

The highlight of the trip was the submarine tour where you can go down deep into the ocean and see the amazing, gorgeous, eye-popping sea life that exists off the shore of Bermuda. If you ever go, this is a defiant must, no matter how "touristy" it might seem.

Lots of wealthy people have homes in Bermuda, including former Mayor Bloomberg. I doubt you'll run into them as most stay in their secluded mansions. I hope to go back to Bermuda again sometime with my own family and, considering how near it is to NYC, it's a place that all New Yorkers should check out.

P.S. One distinct memory I have of my time in Bermuda was, one afternoon after we got back from a day of sightseeing, we were relaxing in the main room of the resort when I went over to the big table that had lots of newspapers and magazines on it. I picked one up and saw the big news of Woody Allen and Mia Farrow breaking up and hurling nasty accusations at each other, etc. etc. etc. It was the first time I had heard about this "scandal" (it had just broken) and it would go on to dominate the tabloids for the next couple of years (before OJ, Monica, etc.). It was an interesting, totally random thing to happen during my time in paradise. 

The New Yorker on NYC

It should probably come as no surprise that I'm a subscriber to The New Yorker magazine and a listener to its radio show/podcast. It is, without a doubt, the best media outlet in America today, a repository of great investigative reporting (it took down Harvey Weinstein!), cultural reviews, personal profiles, fiction, cartoons, and so much more.

Each issue is like a candy box of intellectualism, different and tasty morsels to excite each part of your brain. 

Despite its name, The New Yorker is rarely about NYC. Except for "Talk of the Town", most issues are about people and places far away, it's focus international in score. But this week's issue, which you can read here, is "all about the town." It's a collection of articles and essay about life in the city from the past several decades, a love letter to the town. 

Normally I read an issue of The New Yorker in a couple of days but, for this issue, I plan to read each article one week at a time -- to extend the joy. This issue will make you remember why you love this city and why it's a place that can't be written about too much.

Living History

One of the pleasure of living in a city like New York is that history is literally all around -- and alive!

It's alive! 

Not just in the structures or the institutions -- literal and figurative -- that inhabit our city. It's also the people and their creations, some quite grand, some quite idiosyncratic. 

Two very different but notable examples:

The Payne Whitney Smith mansion on Fifth Avenue, right across from Central Park and The Met, hosts a room that is perhaps the most spectacular one in all of NYC -- dubbed the Venetian Room. This article provides pictures and history of this room that was designed by the legendary Stanford White and is a living artifact of the Gilded Age, a time once distant but also familiar to NYC today.

Then there's Swine Bowl. Yes, that's what it's called. It was an annual football game played by  childhood friends every Thanksgiving weekend since 1954. It started to Westchester but migrated to NYC in the early 1960s and has bonded these old friends through marriages, careers, children, and grandchildren. After 65 years, Swine Bowl has come to an end but it's an example of living history in NYC, one of many, that will never die.

In NYC, history lives side by side with its residents, and you'll find it in the most unexpected places.  

The Brooklyn Army Terminal

Interview: Greg Young of The Bowery Boys Podcast

Easily the best podcast about New York City history is The Bowery Boys, created and still hosted today by Greg Young and Tom Meyers. On each episode, these two uber-NYC enthusiasts deep-dive into so many aspects of this city's history: the people, neighborhoods, events, and eccentricities that have formed this most amazing of places. They go way back in history and make it relevant to life in the city today. The enthusiasm and joy that Greg and Tom bring to each episode is infectious, and the show has gone beyond the podcast into books and tours. 

It's brilliant and extremely fun, and I get excited every time I see a new episode pop up in my IPhone. 

The Bowery Boys, still going strong after more than a decade, is extremely popular with listeners from all over the world. Greg Young was kind enough to answer some questions for Mr NYC about the podcast, the city, its history, and his favorite NYC-related things.  

Tell us what inspired you and your co-host Tom Meyers to create The Bowery Boys podcast. What makes you keep doing it after 11 years? And why call is the "Bowery" boys? 

We started the podcast in 2007 as a way to keep us inspired about the city and to learn more about our neighborhood at the time (which was the Lower East Side). We have not been exhausted by the information we continue to find about the city, so we keep doing the show! The Bowery Boys were a 19th century gang that roamed the streets of Five Points, the notorious slum that once sat near Chinatown today. Although we like to also consider ourselves in the tradition of the ‘Bowery b’hoys’ and ‘Bowery g’hals’ of the 1830s and 40s, Irish-phrased slang for the new young Irish immigrant populations that were moving into lower Manhattan at the time.

While the podcast is about the history of NYC, it seems focused on how the history of the physical city intersects with its cultural and social history -- as well as its "mystique." Is this is a good way to describe the podcast or am I missing something? What else would you say the podcast is about? 

All of that – and more! I’d say the meaning of our show has evolved as well, especially now that we’ve done it for 11 years. Things we talked about at the beginning have changed or are now entirely gone. It’s interesting listening to our early shows just to compare how the city has developed – in some ways good, others bad. For instance, it’s almost amusing to hear our early shows on the High Line and the Meat-Packing District, recorded years before Hudson Yards project was dreamt up. 

How do you guys go about finding subjects to discuss and what is your research process like? How do you avoid being repetitive? 

Topics develop out of research or are inspired by current events or pop culture moments. For instance, our next show is on the history of the New York comedy scene, inspired by our affection for the The Marvelous Mrs Maisel on Amazon. And it’s okay to be a little repetitive, we have discovered. Sometimes it’s worthwhile to approach subjects again from a different point of view. We just recently did a show on Emma Lazarus, incorporating the history of the Statue of Liberty into that, but from the angle of immigration (a hot button issue these days). 

The podcast goes pretty far back into the history of NYC. Are you guys most interested in NYC before the 1950s and '60s or do you ever like to get into recent history? 

We do whatever interests us. When we do recent history, we like to interview people who remembered the history. Sometimes, due to time constraints, its just easier for us to talk about older topics but technically no decade is off limits. Our comedy show in two weeks will have a whole section about the 1990s. 

Do you have to fight the urge to make the podcast Manhattan-centric and is it harder to do episodes about the outer boroughs? 

It drives me crazy because I’d love to do more about the outer boroughs. But we have such a diverse audience at this point – with as many listeners outside New York City as in – and Manhattan tales are still the most popular. PLUS you can’t overlook how important New York (which was just Manhattan until 1898) is in American history. That said, there will be a LOT more Brooklyn and Queens in the coming year. 

Tell us about some of your favorite episodes and what made them so special? 

So many ways to answer this! We love our ghost story shows of course – we get to be melodramatic and over-produced – and we love our big infrastructure shows the most (like the subway, Robert Moses, Jane Jacobs, the grid plan). Personally speaking, I love the music shows. I come from a career in the music industry and was so thrilled to do shows on Billie Holiday and The Cotton Club that were brimming with music. 

What are some of your favorite pieces of NYC historical trivia -- and what things about the city's history do you think are important for anyone who lives here to know? 

I’m currently obsessed with the origins of place names. Find an interestingly names street and go down a rabbit hole of how it got its name. For instance, there are a row of streets in Greenpoint that are alphabetical north to south (Ash Street, Box Street, Clay Street etc.) and its all to do with the 19th century industry that once lined the waterfront there. 

Have you ever read The Power Broker and what are your thoughts on the legacy of Robert Moses? 

One of my favorite books of course! I’ll say this – our city could probably use a 1930s Robert Moses right about now, to erase and reverse some of the damage that 1950s and 60s Robert Moses did to this city. 

What are favorite NYC neighborhoods and why?

I have about a million, but I always suggest people visit Roosevelt Island. You’d be surprised how many native New Yorkers have never been. It’s got a ton of history and some excellent views. Plus – SMALLPOX HOSPITAL RUINS. 

What are some of your favorite NYC movies, TV shows, and novels? Which movies, in your opinion, show off the city the best or makes people really understand why life is (or was) like here? 

The aforementioned Mrs Maisel, Mad Men, The Knick – are all excellent portrayals of New York. The Alienist was often good, even though it was filmed in Europe. In terms of recent movies – believe it or not, Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them actually does an amazing job at re-imagining 1920s New York. Loved the Saiorse Ronan movie Brooklyn, the Oscar Isaac movies A Most Violent Year and Inside Llewyn Davis. I just recently re-watched Martin Scorsese’s The Age of Innocence and thought it really held up. 

As the city becomes more and more gentrified, do you think NYC is in danger of losing parts of its history or has historical preservation done enough to, well, preserve it? Tell us your thoughts about how you think NYC should keep its history while also moving into the future? 

New York City always needs to keep changing; it can’t afford to be a museum artifact like Paris or Rome. We’ve got excellent preservation laws in place and well-regarded community groups fighting to save those artifacts that are most endangered. But I do worry about classic mom-and-pop places disappearing with skyrocketing rents. There are some excellent ideas in play to help save them, but the best way to save those types of businesses is to actually frequent them, spend money at them. We can’t lament the loss of a classic diner or a deli if we’ve never bothered to step foot in it. 

What are your hopes for The Bowery Boys podcast moving forward? What does the future hold? 

More live shows, a new spin-off show for 2019, and another book! 

Finally, what do you love most about NYC? 

My answer changes every week. Last week’s answer – the beauty of snow falling in a brownstone neighborhood with a canopy of trees. The week before – my local bakery’s bagels. Next week’s answer – visiting the American Museum of Natural History on Wednesday to watch workers inflate the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade floats. 

Thanks Greg!

You can find podcast episodes and more info about where to download them here. 

Mr NYC in California

This is another "blast from the past", my memories of traveling in California in the 1990s and early 2000s. 

I've actually been there several times and love, love, love it. Sadly I haven't been in over 15 years but, here they are, my favorite places to go and things to do that, if you ever find yourself in the Golden State, you might enjoy as well:

Los Angeles: I didn't spend a lot of time there but my main memories of LA were doing the Universal Studios tour (got to see the backlot where Back to the Future was shot) and the Nixon Museum (where they sanitize the disgraced man's legacy). I also went to the taping for the pilot of a very bad TV show where the warm up comedian was funnier than the actual show.  

The best part of LA -- leaving it, and driving up to Northern California. We drove along the Pacific Coast Highway, one of the most mind-blowing vistas in the world. We also saw Monterey and Carmel, two gorgeous towns between the state's two major cities (Clint Eastwood himself was Mayor of Carmel at one time). 

San Francisco: the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood was interesting. This was ground zero for the counter-culture, where The Greatful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, and other great bands came to define the 1960s and American rebellion. My brother, his friend, and I walked around there on a Sunday night and we saw lots of young white homeless people who asked us for money for "kitty food." Then we went into an ice cream store where the young lady behind the counter wore just overalls and sunglasses -- at 9 PM at night. I don't remember the flavor of ice cream I ordered but I do recall her telling me that my selection was "mellow." I kid you not, this happened. I don't remember much of the food I ate in SF but the Stinking Rose restaurant was amazing. It's a place where they serve garlic on everything so be sure to go with people who really like you. Palo Alto: I loved Antonio’s Nuthouse, an “iconic” bar with lots of peanuts on the ground. There was also a gorgeous movie revival house (don't remember the name) there where we saw a screening of Lawrence of Arabia. Before the show there was a man playing music on a beautifully restored organ.

The Coppola ranch is something you must see. It is, obviously, gorgeous, and you can buy lots of great wine from the vineyard there. Also, if you're a big fan of Coppola's movies, you can see the desk from The Godfather, the "solid gold telephone" from II, surfboards from Apocalypse Now, and the great man's Oscars and Palm D'Or awards.

Santa Cruz: this area is near SF and is, obviously, stunning. I remember eating two great breakfasts there: one a veranda of a beautiful house and another at a restaurant on the end of a pier, the moutains surrounding us. 

San Simeon or the ”Hearst Castle”: this is the great estate built by William Randolf Hearst that inspired Xanadu from "Citizen Kane”. The Castle is an incredible marble  monument to aquisition, paintings and fabrics adorning every wall. There are swimming pools everywhere where Heart, Marion Davies, Charlie Chaplin and others used to party. The estate is massive, full of wild animals, and is roughly half the size of Rhode Island -- it's that big. San Simeon is a monument to American nobility -- an man-made tribute of a man to himself. I hope to return to California at some point in the future to see a lot more. And, when I do, I can't wait to blog all about it. 

P.S. California has a brand new Governor, Gavin Newsom, who was once mayor of San Fracisco and will take office in January.

P.P.S. Here's an interesting thing that happened to me in California: on my last night in LA, I returned late to the place where I was staying when I got a message from my mom that a "large package" had arrived from the top college I had applied to. The next morning, on a payphone at LAX next to the gate for my flight home, my dad told me over the phone that I'd been accepted. It was a life-changing moment -- a golden moment in the Golden State. 

Contra-peak!

I've become a big fan of the new New York City Transit head Andy Byford -- the affable Brit imported to our city to "turnaround" the ailing subway system. He did it in Toronto and other places so hopefully he'll work his magic here as well.

He seems to be doing so -- this amazing radio interview he did gives a great overview of the many improvements that have been made to the subways just this year and the concrete plans he has for next year. Also, he talks a great deal about how the new Amazon facility in LIC will affect the subways and commuting in the future. Byford has a great tactical mind, an ability to solve short-term problems with a long-term outlook. He's got transportation in his bones. 

You should listen to this interview. My favorite part, however, is when he talks about how, with the new Amazon facility, there might be a lot of "reverse commuting" that Byford calls "contra-peak."

So, whenever you're going against the grain, whenever you're going one way when everyone else is going another, tell them you're going "contra-peak."